MPs say aid being given to Belle squatters is no election gimmick

Some five years after the Town and Country Planning Department insisted that squatters must be moved from the Zone One water table of The Belle, St Michael, their living conditions are set to be upgraded.

The squatters whose dwellings straddle the constituencies of St Michael East represented by incumbent Trevor Prescod, and St Michael Central where Arthur Holder is the Member of Parliament, will shortly see the installation of running water and roads.

News of this came Friday from Prescod and Holder during their visit to Belleview in St Michael Central – one of the areas where the living conditions of residents were described as sub-human.

Speaking to the media, Prescod thanked Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Ian Gooding-Edghill and Minister in the Ministry of Water Resources Charles Griffith for responding to a longstanding request to improve the infrastructure of those living in Odessa McClean Drive, The Belle and parts of Licorish Village.

He said there was a need to change the area’s designation from zone one which prohibited housing development, after a number of houses had been demolished and removed and several others were served with relocation notices.

“They [the ministers] were able to put a programme in place where we will never see that happen again to any of the people who are at present living in this location. People will be able to enjoy the comfort of knowing they can wake up tomorrow morning without any officer of the government, Town Planning, any department coming to say that they have to move their houses,” Prescod assured.

“But it is now more than that. We are now in a position where we are looking at installing water in all the houses in The Belle, in Odessa McClean Drive and in Licorish Village area, as well as here in Belleview. It might be divided by a gully, it might be divided by streets, but these are all one people. It is one community, but for the purpose of the division of the electoral boundaries they might be divided into two specific constituencies, but they are one people,” he added.

Prescod said that over the past few months, he and Holder worked assiduously to ensure the planned upgrade came to fruition.

He dismissed suggestions in some quarters that the improvements to the areas were motivated by the upcoming election, as he pointed to a nearby billboard displaying the plans for the community at Belleview that he contended could not have been prepared overnight.

“What is most important is that we have resolved this problem and the job will be done. I am in the process of starting everything. I am installing, in the interim period, a number of standpipes and I am also working on the roads coming in from the train line from Belmont School down,” Prescod announced.

He said he and Holder would work together as a team to make sure all of the benefits that derive from this effort would not only be shared from the eastern side of this community, but also throughout the entire Belle, Belleview, Odessa McClean, Belle Gully and My Lords Hill area.

“So we are on our way, and I give you the assurance that this will be done,” he stated, adding that in a couple of days, water and road works will begin.

Prescod also reminded the constituents that the previous Democratic Labour Party (DLP) government had the opportunity to improve their living conditions through $40 million from the Canadian government but the money had to be returned after it was never spent.

Holder picked up where Prescod left off with respect to the millions of dollars that could have been used to benefit the people in the two St Michael constituencies.

“Can one fathom the idea that you have $40 million to spend on improving the lives of people? In Belleview, for example, you have people … who are living here in sub-human conditions,” he noted.

“This is not a promise. This was a commitment and an undertaking that we ensured take place. On Monday coming, the start of this road works will take place [in Belleview]. And from there on, you will see this exposed and this area beautified and the people of Belleview live lives like normal people that they so deserve,” the incumbent St Michael Central MP declared.

Back in 2016, Chief Town Planner Mark Cummins said the plan to remove the squatters would be tied to an amended Barbados Water Authority Act that would classify The Belle as an Exclusion Zone and possible Zone A area, a change from its  Zone One classification.

The Green Paper on the 2020 Water Protection and Land Use Zoning Policy proposed that the existing Zones 1 – 5 be replaced by new Zones A – E  which included in Zone A,  a strict exclusion zone, smaller in area than the existing Zone 1, with no new developments, and restricted agriculture and in Zone B – a pathogen management zone, with stricter rules for sewage treatment and disposal.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb